A REMARKABLE INVENTION.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XXIII, Issue 115, 5 June 1901, Page 2

A REMARKABLE INVENTION.

A RIirLE-SISHT THAT REGISTERS RANGE. (Wellington Post.) Tho tfrtdition.-il conservation of Br: ish military iffi-ials ha 3 caused ino-o thir. one important invention to slip through th<» fir.gsrs of the War Offi.'.e aod into fore : ga hands, as Mr Mtxiia aid others cm doubtless testify. The igno anco that ipnoies va uable improvements in offensive and dafousive arms has, howov« r , been [somewhat sharply rebuked by sevral. l oeomret.cts during the present war,| \«?A thsie is room for hope that our I

military authorities will bo sufficiently free from the old trammds to give an intelligent consideration to promising inventions, ev.<n though they come "out of Nazareth." Tho latest of thc-83 is from New Zealand, and is the patent of an Opunako blacksmith, Mr 0. A. Trotter. It takes •ho form of a rifle sight that registers its own. range; sin;h a sight as has lmg b. en l ;okrd for by nvlitary experts, and for which the War Office is sai \to have offered a big sum, Mr. Trotter his fitted his sight to a MartmiHeory, and is prepared to with the rifle and submit it ta any practical test that. m«y be desired. We cannot at this stogo enter into any details of its mechanism, further than to say that it is a back sight, and arpisrs ss a handy lt'le wnhivanc •, 3| inches in length, affixed to the buret aud controlled ty a button, in t>.e sock ben. ath; an 1 though its soveral parts are of beautiful workm.nship, th<»y are strong, easily maoipuUtx 4 , and t;iven 'ordimry «eir do not seem likely to get out of order. On the rifle being Iks'; lai-1 on, it is Bimply equipped in the or liuary way «i h fore ai>d back s'gh's, aiid these a- e brought into line wi*h the olject—a lin=) of directim th it must be rigidly maintiiiied during he subsequent gearing nf th-j ba'k (which may eiui'i'ly he n ferr-d 'o as the sight); the next st p is »o raanip'il»ta a small piece i'f ste -1, whi.'h U in th>) fore pirt of the s ; ght, aud which contains a tola running obl'quely to the plane. There is a hair bisecting th* bol-y and the mechanism i-i raised till the hair is brought into line with the object aimed at, thu? intersecting the p'ane and giving the aogle from which the range , is ca'culvted. *4.s scun as the hiiris in line with the obj. ct, the sight is thrown into g< av by side pressure; then prt-ss the button in the stock, and immediately the sight rises up to the elevation of the objactaimod ..t, On raising the fo:e-sight into line again with the sight and the object, ths i u-'cessary trajectory {£ obtain, d. The

' ea'oiiat'on of the range is claimed to be doue on a geometrical basis purely, . and independent of any knowledge on i the part of the shootist, The siglnt ' moves up snd down ina'de a graduated ! iron guard, on 4which the rangts arc : engravtd from 200 to 1400 yards -the Martini- Henri range. , The irivjctor states positively that - in registering its own range and deter- ■ min : ng the trajectory requird, his ■ sight oun.ot lie. Ord : nary s'ghts aie r true to the ranges in horizontal firing. , but not in firing uphill or downhill, i but i<s tight adjusts itself accurately > to the three conditions of fire. The • thing ia of suah importance that it is ] to be hopi-d that the Defence authorities will test it thoroughly bt>for« allowing the inventor to placa his crea <ion in othi'r bands. Neither success 1 nor failure-whichever it be--should' take long to dem' , ns f rate, and the cist of tirnj and ammunition would be i smill.